Daily Times, August 22, 2006
US consulate suicide bombing: Attacker brought explosives-packed car from Waziristan
By Abbas Naqvi
KARACHI: The car used in the suicide bomb attack on the US consulate on March 2 this year was prepared with explosives and transported from Waziristan to Karachi, sources told Daily Times Monday after the police held a press conference to announce the identification of the suicide attacker and the arrests of two accomplices.
US diplomat David Foy, his driver Iftekhar Ahmed and Rangers sepoy on duty Zafar were killed and a security guard Hasan Shehzad was injured and later died in the attack near the US consulate behind the Mariott Hotel. Forty-nine other people were injured and 37 parked cars were destroyed.
Addressing the crowded press conference at the office of the DIG Operations, Sindh Inspector General Police Jehangir Mirza
said the suicide bomber had been identified earlier as Raja Mohammed Tahir s/o Mohammed Afzal, resident of House No 330-D, near Madina Masjid, Landhi.
Two of Tahir’s co-accused were identified as Anwarul Haq s/o Khaneemullah and Usman Ghani s/o Abdul Rauf. At the press conference the police also declared their arrests from Hijrat Colony as having taken place on Monday morning in the jurisdiction of Artillery Maidan Police Station. The IGP said that the mastermind of the plot, Qari Zafar, was at large.
Police sources said that the men who were arrested - Anwarul Haq and Usman Ghani - told the police during interrogations that all of them had participated in the Afghan jihad against US forces in 2000 before 9/11. However, they were arrested and kept in Shabarghan jail. From there when the climate changed and Pakistanis were released, these three men returned to Pakistan.
In Afghanistan, the men developed links with al Qaeda and the Taliban. Qari Zafar, the mastermind, from Waziristan lead the group and gave them the task of carrying out an attack against an American target during a visit of US President George Bush.
Police sources told Daily Times that Raja Tahir had brought the explosives-packed car from Waziristan. A senior Anti-Violent Crime Cell officer said that the three men Anwar, Usman and Raja knew each other but their responsibilities or duties for the missing had been kept secret from each other. It was only on March 2, when the car reached the spot that Anwar found out that Raja was meant to carry out the suicide attack.
Sources said that Raja Tahir’s family learnt about his death in the beginning of June after some of his friends arrived at the house and told them that he had died in Afghanistan while fighting the Americans. The family held a funeral in absentia. It was only later that the family heard through the police that Raja had turned out to be the suicide bomber.
Sources said that the case was solved with the help of information gleaned from arrests in the Allama Hasan Turabi case.
At the press conference, the IGP pointed out on the same day (March 2), the US president was arriving Pakistan on a visit. He said the suicide bomber had rammed his car AGE-750, a Toyota Corolla, into the diplomat’s bullet-proof car the moment it was about to enter the consulate.
Mirza pointed out that attackers had monitored the movements of all diplomats stationed at the consulate for quite some time and noted the routes and timings of vehicles in detail and had also thoroughly watched access to the consulate.
He said that because of strict security checks in the area, the accused had loaded the explosives in parts of the car that are not often checked. They filled 200 kg of C-4 and TNT explosives in the CNG cylinder and inside seats and mudguards.
He said the accused reached the scene a little before 9:00 a.m. and Tahir parked his car in the parking area while Anwarul Haq kept watch for Foy’s arrival.
As soon as the diplomat’s car came into sight, Haq made a special gesture to Tahir who reversed and rammed his car into Foy’s.
The IGP pointed out that al Qaeda had accepted responsibility for the suicide bombing a month later and investigations had now established that the accused were al Qaeda members. He said Haq had suffered injuries in the Afghan war as a result of which his right leg had to be amputated. Mirza said more arrests are expected.
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